🃏🍺🍸
went to my favorite bar in the world with my friend in kyoto today. didn’t do a whole lot else, so this post will probably be a bit short.
the train from osaka to kyoto is about an hour and 20 minutes, but thankfully these trains have actual seating.
i was supposed to meet my friend at 6:30 at Sanyo station. but i arrived at 5:00 so i could walk around and get a few photos. like last year, i didn’t stay in kyoto, but it is a beautiful place to visit.
kyoto is incredibly overcrowded with tourists all the time. it seems 90% of tourists who visit japan tend to do tokyo -> kyoto -> osaka and thats it. they call this the “golden route”. Kyoto has very narrow streets and is the “cultural capital” of japan, so it draws a lot of crowds.
the contrast between kyoto’s pristine clean streets and beautiful views against osaka’s……… grime? is really interesting. getting on a train in one and stepping out in the other can be something of a whiplash experience. tomorrow’s post will be more focused on osaka, so maybe the two blog posts next to each other will feel the same.
the walk from my airbnb to the train station in osaka was about 20 minutes, so i got a few good pictures on the way.
as mentioned above, kyoto is a really beautiful place. just about everywhere in the city is incredibly photogenic.
the below picture may make it hard to tell, but this is a river full of cherry blossom petals.
i met up with tsukasa at the station at 6:30, and we headed to dinner on the way to joker bar. we went to a chinese restaurant because we wanted gyoza (which i learned in this moment is chinese food). i also ordered ramen. i eat ramen a lot here.
delicious meal complete, we headed straight to joker bar. this is my favorite bar in the world (not like i have been to very many though). this bar “specializes” in lemon sours, offering 5 different kinds. last year, i tried all 5 (do not recommend the tomato). this year, i just had a bunch of cola ones, a ginger one, and a green tea one. i also had a mug of kirin beer. i hadn’t tried kirin beer before, its very good.
japanese drinking culture is fascinating. i could (and looks like still will) make a super long mostly uniformed write-up about it, but honestly, this video is a pretty good explanation.
japanese people are generally very reserved. japanese society really really really prioritizes social order and going with the flow, avoiding conflict at all coses. speaking out or “sharing your opinion” are considered rude, and people just don’t do it. yes, everyone is nice and welcoming here, but they aren’t a different species of creature than the rest of the world. they still probably internally have the same reactions and opinions as a lot of americans might. but it is heavily ingrained in japanese culture to not make waves, and be as non confrontational as you can possibly be. anyone who has worked retail is probably familiar with the customer service voice. yes, i want to punch this customer in the face and i hope they stub their toe on a nail every morning, but i will instead say “i apologize for the inconvenience” and smile. its kind of like japanese people all have that active all the time.
one of my favorite clips is from this video.
“one time, one of my colleagues, when i was teaching, i asked him “do you have any pets?” and he said to me ‘maybe my cat is dead.’”
japan has words/concepts for this kind of thing. honne (本音) vs. tatemae (建前) or “what you actually think” vs. “what you say to not upset anyone”.
all of the above to say, in a bar that disappears immediately. nearly 100% of my interactions with japanese people outside of a bar setting are “how long are you in japan?” or “where are you from” sort of small talk. but in a bar? in a bar, you get “why did you elect an idiot as the president?” and "why do all americans seem to hate trump but still elect him?” and “my work doesn’t pay me for the overtime i work and that is illegal”. they drop the facade completely and its fascinating. obviously alcohol does that for a lot of people, but its crazy to see it in a society that is so powerfully non confrontational and unwilling to ever share an opinion.
i kind of didn’t expect to be discussing donald trump in a bar on the other side of the planet during my vacation, but i guess that’s what happens 2 days after the most idiot tariff announcement of all time makes headlines in every country.
i dont try to keep it a secret that i am extremely left leaning, and i imagine like 90+% of people reading my blog probably aren’t. but trying to talk about this kind of thing in simple english and google translate is funny. i obviously should have just said “選挙人団制度は、農村部や教育水準の低い地域に不公平な量の投票権を与えています。これにより、大統領選挙が農村部の教育水準の低い地区によって決定されることが多く、国内で政治的分裂を引き起こしています。海岸近くや大都市に住む人々は、農村部とはまったく異なる政治的イデオロギーやニーズを持っていることが多く、問題解決に向けて取り組むのではなく、社会文化的な問題についての議論につながっています。”
anyway, i got very drunk at the bar, and ordered drinks for all the bar staff too. a night of heavy drinking for 2 people + buying 4 beers for the bar staff was only $80.
thankfully, kyoto is one of the most walkable cities ever, and i was easily able to walk to the train station, take an 80 minute train home, and walk back to my airbnb without issue. it also felt completely safe to be alone in the street at 12:00 am. granted, i am probably in the top 0.5% in terms of size, and am a man. but still, its nice to not have to worry about it.
on my walk back, 3 different people walked up to me and asked if i wanted a “sexy ladies massage” for only 8,000 yen. it felt like they were reading off a script, since they all said the exact same line. nah, im good, i just wanna go home and sleep now thanks.
i will write more about it in my next blog post, but osaka is so different from the rest of japan. it feels a bit like the city of san diego, but in japan. japan diego.
thats the post!
じゃあまたね!
